Yes, it's that time of the year again! SpaceX is launching another rocket and so it's time for another spin of the wheel in the SFS Casino! We've had three successful launches of Falcon 9 so far and a successful visit to the ISS. But SpaceX is ramping up production, so who knows if haste could spoil their fun? Ladies and gentlemen armchair astronauts, place your bets!

_________________Say, can you feel the thunder in the air? Just like the moment ’fore it hits – then it’s everywhereWhat is this spell we’re under, do you care? The might to rise above it is now within your sphereMachinae Supremacy – Sid Icarus

Last edited by Lourens on Sun Oct 07, 2012 2:47 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Yeah. I wonder if they couldn't have been a bit more flexible with the safety zone though, perhaps they could have restarted the second stage a bit later to get out of the way of ISS, or done two burns to take a different route, or something. On the other hand, if there's 100 billion dollars worth of stuff and three human lives on the line...

Conclusion, being a secondary payload on a SpaceX ISS mission is riskier than on other missions, because you need a completely nominal launch. On the other hand, the price may compensate for that. Orbcomm will launch the rest of their constellation as primary payloads on two F9's, so they'll be fine then even with an engine out.

What's encouraging about SpaceX's rockets so far is that they seem to fail fairly gracefully. The beginning was a bit rocky with a corroded nut leading to engine failure and some stage separation issues related to GNC and a new engine, but after that it has been small issues and things that were compensated for by the robust design. Also, it seems to me that all of these types of errors except perhaps the one on the first F1 would have been survivable even without an escape system but with the ability to disconnect the capsule from the rocket, as there have not been any major explosions. By the looks of the launch video, if they manage to make these things reusable then one with a failed engine like this could probably be refurbished and reused.

_________________Say, can you feel the thunder in the air? Just like the moment ’fore it hits – then it’s everywhereWhat is this spell we’re under, do you care? The might to rise above it is now within your sphereMachinae Supremacy – Sid Icarus